Bianca at Five Months

I'm writing this from the coziness of my decidedly cheap but strangely supportive chair in our living room. The baby's fed and in bed, Ewa's talked to her sister and is in the shower, we've had a lovely meal of chicken and walnuts with rice and a carrot/cranberry/cream salad, I've got Arcade Fire on NPR blasting through the Dell and I'm three glasses of Albariño to the good. Life is swell. And our baby is fat. She checked in at 16.2lbs on Friday, she grew 3.5cm (almost 1.5") last month and she's jumping Spanish percentile curves. I think if I was growing 1mm a day, I'd whine more. She's been well behaved and Ewa is preparing simultaneously for their trip to Poland next week and our trip to the Canaries when they come back in the end of March. I'm really excited to see how much Bianca likes the pool. If the bath is any indication, I think my vacation's amusement will be Pool Time with Bianca.

Now for the week in pictures.
I've mentioned Bianca's love of her spoon.Here's Mommy and her little girl at the woefully short Carnival parade last week. Its blurry, what can I say, you try using elapsed exposures with a happy yet fidgety five month old. Daddy kissing his little girl on the head. Or maybe I was just smelling her. I don't know, I'm such a sucker for everything Bianca. And finally, I'm not sure what draws me to this picture in particular. Among the 1000-some we've taken, few show the focus of her gaze, the wit and wink of mischief in her eyes and the feeling that she just wants to tell us something.

Enjoying her Bath

I realize this clip is a little grainy because it was dark, but we try to keep the lights dim when we're bathing Bianca as we go right into her bedtime ritual afterwards. You can see how much she likes her bath.

Moving on Up

Bianca's fussy time coincides with Mommy and Daddy's dinner time. We alternate holding her, rocking her bouncer back and forth with our feet, or distracting her with singing and toys. Ewa has had to employ the Portia De Rossi habit of eating meals standing up during the day.
If she's sitting in our laps while we eat, she's ecstatic; though Daddy's spill factor is multiplied, seemingly, by the happily squirming package that is Bianca. I have yet to meet a onesie or tights I couldn't dribble onto. One night poor Bianca looked like she had been carpet bombed by the Spaghetti Army. I'm not proud of it. This weekend we assembled, read: removed from box, Bianca's booster chair. So far it's improved her dinner attitude. She's at the same height as us, using our wooden cooking spoon to baste herself with her own saliva, and generally enjoying being a fully participating member of the team. Last night, when she fussed, I dipped my finger in my wine and put in on her tongue. Her eyes twinkled with intrigue as she assessed this new flavor. It shut her up for a good 30 seconds. Have to try some other new tastes soon, too. She's definitely ready for food. She takes great interest in ours.

The Absent Father

The last two nights I've had to work late, which means getting home after Bianca goes to bed. I miss her. In just two days I miss seeing my daughter's drooly, smiley, if somewhat annoyed in the evenings face. I don't think I'd make it traveling away from my girls. Thankfully they still like traveling with me. I know this is the first of many late nights to come, so I'm going to make it up to both Bianca and Ewa tomorrow. Some quality time with Mom and Dad in the bed tomorrow morning, followed by helping me pick my soccer team, followed by a nice walk, followed by grocery shopping and maybe some soccer watching; that should shake off this week's work debacles and allow me to sink back into fatherhood after a two day hiatus. Bianca has been on her best behavior this week and she's actually allowing herself to be left relatively alone, if you count sitting in her play gym with her Boppy supporting her from behind while Ewa is still in the same room or only pops out for moments at a time. Of course, the only reason she's so entertained in her gym is because there are so many things she can put into her mouth!

We weighed her in at 7.2kg the other night. I think she may be 7.5kg by her 5 month check up next week. Her rolls have rolls. So many people here, especially those old an older generation, can't believe that our little rotund princess has grown so well on just breast milk. They suspect we've been sneaking her chocolate bars.

Happy Valentine's Day

I had two valentines this year, so I got them some cool new plants.

Sunday Evening

Ewa's been reading Tracy Hogg's "The Baby Whisperer" and one of the tenets is the establishment of a routine. Ewa has her weekday routine with Bianca, which includes two walks. Her weekend routine is a bit different, but we try not to interrupt the sleeping and feeding times. But last night we were trying to keep the Paku (Bianca, we have Polish gibberish nicknames) up until 8 so we could put her in the bath and straight to bed. It backfired. She fell asleep on my chest at 7:52pm. Today we went to lunch at a colleagues and Bianca just couldn't get to sleep. She fussed, loudly, all afternoon then finally took a nap at 6:30pm, and didn't wake up. Finally, at 9, we woke her, gently, bathed her, fed her and put her back to bed. Tomorrow the real schedule starts again. We got some classic shots this weekend.

I'd fallen to third and now I am a distant second in my Premiership Fantasy League. Real life intervened, but I'm back to my winning ways with my new handicapper. This is a Saturday morning standard.We usually bathe Bianca at night, but due to the aforementioned sleepiness last night she got the rare mid-morning bath today. A misty, but sunny Ferrol makes for a nice backdrop. This is the view from the nursery. When Bianca was very young and couldn't sleep we used to walk the apartment at night looking at all the lights at the shipyards through the various windows. She's definitely taken a liking to two toys, Bee and Chicken (whom I sometimes call Rooster). Here she is enjoying them both in her gym. And here are my purple girls. Bianca is definitely starting to look more like her beautiful mother, though people still say she favors her Daddy. Damn those brown eyes, they are the most obvious facial feature right now. We did the math, we had a 40% chance for blue, 10% for green and 50% for brown; well, this website did the math. Still the best looking ladies in town.

Belly time princess

Bianca's getting really good at belly time. If we're standing behind her and to the side she seems to elongate her neck and twist her head like turtle, looking for us. I keep hoping that she'll lose her balance and induce a rollover, but she's too strong. Her sitting up has also gotten much better. She reaches for her favorite toys - only so she can put them in her mouth - and she starts to do a sit up when she's laying on her back trying to raise herself to a sitting position.

Sunday Lunch

Our weekend routine is to go out for a nice lunch, depending on the weather. Today, it was gorgeous. We ate outdoors. The thermometer on the stroller said 62F. Not too shabby for February. Some great photos today, but this possibly my favorite. See her eyeing that beer.And, Ewa has been doing some themed dressing. The other day was blue, yesterday was orange, today was green. Here's a good one from blue day.

Bianca 'talking'

We have lots of pictures, but we've really been trying to capture our little package in live motion. Ewa got a great little clip of Bianca mumbling to her herself. And since I'm really enjoying Charles Yang's, The Infinite Gift every babble makes me want to read more.